WTS Chapters

Transportation YOU

Membership

WTS-Boston 2017 October Breakfast Recap

Frank Monkiewicz Photography www.frankmonkiewicz.com

Written By: Tricia Pinto, Sanborn Head

On October 19, 2017, WTS-Boston hosted a breakfast event with speaker Nikki Tischler from MassDOT’s Office of Transportation Planning. Nikki is a Transportation Planner and Title VI Strategist, and she shared with the audience some of the interesting projects she is working on that relate to applying civil rights and equity to transportation.

Nikki is passionate about improving the availability and accessibility of transportation because she recognizes that transportation is a connector to life. When evaluating a transportation project, Nikki always asks important questions like “Who are we building this project for?” and “How do we get them at the table?”. She feels that by asking these questions and pushing for diversity at the decision-making table, we can create more successful and inclusionary projects.

Nikki and her team have been working on a new project called Engage. This is an online tool accessed through geoDOT that can be used to increase participation and outreach for transportation projects. Using this tool helps project proponents identify community based organizations for public outreach. The tool also provides information about accessible meeting locations and community demographics. With this information, communication plans can be developed to reach the community more effectively and ultimately achieve meaningful participation. Nikki was also excited to announce that her team is working on a second component of Engage that will allow users to analyze available information pertaining to Environmental Justice and Title VI civil rights categories.

Thank you to Nikki for speaking with WTS-Boston and sharing her passion for providing equity in transportation in the Commonwealth! To access Engage, click here.